Why we need to rehang our Australian art collections
The National Gallery of Australia has rehung its early Australian galleries, drawing on a broad curatorium to recontextualise our art history – and it’s not alone in the trend.
Installation view Belonging: Stories of Australian Art, National Gallery of Australia. Photo ArtsHub.
The way we present the narratives of early Australian art has changed. It had to.
No longer are these museum hangs myopic colonialist views, padded out with symbols of colonial opulence – furniture, silverware, ceramics, jewellery – and the token bark painting or boomerang. Rather, they are a significant step in righting wrongs, and finding truth through greater transparency to the narratives that sit behind and beyond Australian art.
Gina Fairley is ArtsHub's Senior Contributor, after 12 years in the role as National Visual Arts Editor. She has worked for extended periods in America and Southeast Asia, as gallerist, arts administrator and regional contributing editor for a number of magazines, including Hong Kong based Asian Art News and World Sculpture News. She is an Art Tour leader for the AGNSW Members, and lectures regularly on the state of the arts. She is based in Mittagong, regional NSW.
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